David Silverman

David Silverman was born in the wilds of Long Island, New York on the Ides of March, 1957, and grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. He began drawing at the age of 4 and couldn’t think of a good reason to stop.

He began an earnest interest in animation and cartooning at age 9, and making super 8 movies, drawing, and tuba playing eventually led him to the UCLA Animation Workshop.

After a variety of freelance art jobs David became an animator on The Tracy Ullman Show in 1987. There he, along with fellow animators Wes Acher and Bill Kopp, began animating and developing The Simpsons with Matt Groening.

In 1989 The Simpsons was made into a primetime series, and David became a director, and later supervising director and a producer. After designing the opening title sequence, he directed the Christmas special, Bart The Genius (the premiere episode), and several significant early episodes.

In 1996, David went to DreamWorks to work as a director on The Road To El Dorado. Then a call from Steve Jobs brought David to PIXAR. There he reconnected with his friend Pete Docter, whom he had met years earlier, and became a co-director on MONSTERS, INC. in 1998.

Talk of directing a SIMPSONS MOVIE came as early as 2001, and David returned to his yellow stomping grounds. He also worked as story editor on Blue Sky’s ICE AGE (2002) and later as a board artist on ROBOTS (2005).

David did boards for LOONEY TUNES BACK IN ACTION (2003) before becoming supervising director of The Simpsons once again. He directed 4 of the Treehouse of Horror Halloween before taking on directing THE SIMPSONS MOVIE (2007).

Since then, David has been developing several projects and continues as a consulting producer on The Simpsons. He has directed the Simpsons Coke Superbowl ad (2009), and most recently directed the theatrical short starring Maggie Simpson THE LONGEST DAYCARE (2012), which was nominated for an Academy Award.

He can also be found performing the tuba with the Los Angeles band Vaud and the Villains, sometimes lighting it on fire. You know, the way people do…

David Silverman's NCSFest Schedule:

How to Draw the SimpsonsSaturday, May 18 - 11:30 amMain St. LibraryFree!

Meet The SimpsonsSaturday, May 18 - 4:00 pmPier PlazaFree!

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